DareDevil Biography, History

Daredevil

Daredevil is a super hero with an unusual gimmick: he is blind. His other senses are so acute however, that his affliction is hardly a handicap, although he initially possessed little of the special insight that popular fiction frequently attribute to the blind. In fact, as originally presented in 1964 by writer Stan Lee and artist Bill Everett, Daredevil was a relatively carefree character who lived up to his name in a job as a reckless secret existence that belied his day job as a responsible attorney. Even the death of his father, which initially inspired his crime fighting activities, seemed to leave him more or less unscathed. At one point Daredevil actually created a third identity for himself: he impersonated a nonexistent twin brother and then blithely killed him off when the ruse became inconvenient.

The man who wears Daredevil's mask has hidden depths, however. Over the years the blind lawyer Matt Murdock has sensed the world around him growing darker, and changing conditions have challenged his perception of himself. Committed to an ethical viewpoint and a respect for the law, Murdock could play the role of a vigilante only while serving a higher purpose than revenge. But when the colorfully costumed villains he one fought were replaced by brutal thugs who killed on a whim, Murdock was tempted to retaliate in kind. His beloved secretary became a drug addict, and his law partner an unwitting tool of organized crime. Torn by conflicting emotions and confused by the corruption around him, Murdock spiraled into a devastating depression, from which he emerged a humbler and warier person.

Perhaps remembering his father, an unsuccessful boxer who lost his life when he refused to throw a fight, Murdock has recently returned to his roots in the slums. The overachiever now serves the underprivileged - oblivious Daredevil is at last beginning to understand why, like him justice is blind.

Taking a Dare

"The ideas just came so easily, " Stan Lee says of this period. Casting about for another super hero with a different problem to overcome, Lee hit the ultimate drawback for a crime-fighter: "I'll make him blind. A blind lawyer." Drawing upon the idea that the blind are compensated by a heightening of their other senses, Lee invented an accident involving radioactive material that left attorney Matt Murdock sightless, but so sensitive in other ways that he could hear heartbeats and read newspapers with his fingertips. This was the only break the character got; his strength and speed were actually no more than those of a trained athlete.

Daredevil #1 (April 1964) presented the debut of the blind hero. The name had been used before for a character introduced by Lev Gleason Publications but abandoned years earlier, and Lee reasoned that it was particularly appropriate for his new Man Without Fear." Another name from bygone days became associated with the first issue when Bill Everett came on board to draw the story. The creator of the 1939 Sub-Mariner had been working as a commercial artist in Massachusetts, but Lee managed to lure him back to New York and Marvel; a number of other veterans would return in the months to come.

Everett soon moved on to other characters, and the complicated red-and-yellow costume that Everett created for the original Daredevil cover was changed by artist Wally Wood to simpler red tights. The more devilish new costume is the one that ultimately lasted.

MARVEL Five Fabulous Decades Of The World's Greatest Comics, p. 118-120., Daredevil Profile. 1991 Marvel Entertainment Group. Published by Harry N. Abrams Inc. Times Mirror.